Welcome to the Bookwyrm's Lair - a page intended to provide a compilation of resources for readers. I have tried to compile a useful list of resources for finding what to read next, how to get it, and even how to keep track of what you liked. If you have a resource you think should be added or other comments on the page you can send an email to lair@woodstar.net with your feedback.

Recomendations and Reviews

Not sure what to read next? Here are some sites to help you find recomended or well-reviewed books.

  • Goodreads: This is a versatile site that is pretty widely used. With an account it lets you track what you read and liked to find more books like it. You can also see what firends or people with smiilar tastes liked. It has ratings, reviews, comments, and discussion for books, as well as recomendation lists, articles, interviews, and more.
  • NYTimes Bestseller List: This is a pretty straitforward link, The New York Times Bestsellers list is available online and can be sorted by category. If your looking for a popular new book, its not a bad place to start.
  • Award Winning Books: If you want to find a book critics like or thats good for a specific reason, award winners aren't a bad choice, but figure out which award first. Once you know that Google or other search engines should be able to help you find a list of winners.
  • Ask your friends: When in doubt ask for recommendations from friends or at a book store or library. People are both able to respond to a more specific request then the internet and can usually answer questions about the book they are recommending. Also recommendations from these sources can usually be borrowed or bought from the recommender.

Fanfiction Resources

Fanfiction isn't what people think of when they think of a site for readers, but some of the most avid readers I know consume thousands of words of it a day. There are works of fanfiction by truly talented writers that I would recommend to almost anyone, and tools to find and enjoy those are something I think should be available to everyone.

  • Introductory information: If you want a definition of fanfiction and fandom, there is an introductory FAQ available in this article. If you want to more about the legal issue of fanfiction and copyright, you can find numerous articles online. A decent summary/FAQ is available in this OTW post.
  • Terminology: Generally you can just google a term, but a fanfiction writer, moonbeam, has put up a good dictionary, and there is a fan-made wiki, fanlore, which contains articles and fandom history on the origins of some terms.
  • Large Repositories: There are a number of large fanfiction sites with thousands of works available in hundreds of fandoms. Generally they are searchable or you can browse a category, usually you can sort by different popularity measures and last update, filter by completion of the work, find all works by an author, and look at what an author has bookmarked to find works they liked.
    • ArchiveOfOurOwn: Run by the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit that advocates for fanwork and its creators (abbrevaited ao3 and otw)
    • Fanfiction.net: Older repository, still quite active, with both excellent and some poorly written works.
  • Recommendation Sites: While my first recomendation is to use the tools available in large repositories. Look for other works with the similar tags you enjoyed or by the same author, find recommendations from an author you liked or a friend who also reads fic. Try sorting the work in a category by a popularity measure to find ones that are generally considered good. Soemtimes though, you don't want to put in that effort. Most recommendation sites are categorical to one or two fandoms, and are often a popular authors rec list. For recommendations across a wide range of fandoms, a decent option is tvtropes, they often have a fanfiction page for a fandom with recommendations.
  • Smaller Repos: I know of several decent smaller repositories and I'm sure I could find lots more I don't know of. I can't list them here, but they generally fall in 3 categories: a writers personal website, a fandom or even pairing specific site, and challenge sites. Usually you can find them with google or get linked to them from an author who is on a large repo.

Book Acquisition

Once you know what you want to read one of the challenges can be getting your hands on teh book quickly and/or cheaply. Below I have included some links to help you acquire whatever it is you want to read.

  • Borrow from a Friend: If you can, borrowing from a friend is a great way to read a book. You don't have to spend money, and there's usually a pretty flexible due date for returning it. It is possible to borrow ebooks as well, even without an e-reader of the same brand as your friend. You can use desktop and/or phone applications to read teh lent books. For details on how to do this look at the documentation for your friends e-reader provider (links coming soon).
  • Libraries: Your local library is an obvious choice for cheap book acquisition, being free. Better still, lots of libraries now offer digital books that you can borrow any time without visiting after getting your card. They can also be read on a smartphone or computer. If you don't know where your library is, just google it, their home page will probably tell you if they offer digital book.
  • Book Stores: The second obvious place to get a book is a book store, and they can also be great places to hang out. If you want to own a print book consider supporting a local bookstore instead of going online. It can be a more enjoyable experience and you get to take it home immediately.
  • Online: If you can't get a book at the bookstore, online it is. Obvious options are Amazon and Barnes & Noble, especially for ebooks.
  • Downloading Fanfic: If you read fanfiction, sometimes you want to save a fic in a nice format or just read on a plane or during a drive when you are without internet. Some cites, like Ao3 offer a download option to download a full work, which works great. For other sites, like ff.net, theres ficsave, an online tool that will download a fanfiction completely.

Personal Tools for Readers

If you read a lot it can be hard to keep track of all of the books you own and stories you read, both physically and mentally. Physically if you aren't organized, frequently loan books, or have several places you keep books you own, knowing where a book is when you want it isn't easy. Mentally if you read a lot of stories, especially in a single genre or with a shared theme, it can be difficult to remember the details. Especially if you read them in a short timespan. Here I have included som e tools to help with that.

  • Goodreads: I know this was already listed for finding new books - but it works for keeping track of what you read and what you thought of it too. You mark books as read, to read, and even as books you own to keep track. Also, after you read a book you can give them personal ratings, reviews, comments and so on. You can even recommend them to friends.
  • A personal reading journal: A reading journal can be a powerful personalized tool for several uses. Primarily it tracks what you read and what you thought about it. You can note your thoughts on the book in any format that works for you. It can be helpful in noticing authors you enjoy, rembering what books you want to recommend to a friend, or even just if you have read something before (if you can't remember it might not be worth a reread). There are some examples of possible journal formats available in this spreadsheet.
  • A Library Spreadsheet: This is a sort of pet project of me and my sister - to keep an inventory of our books where we can both see them to facilitate loaning books. Its a spreadsheet with tabs for each participant to keep their inventory in a flexible format, and a Library tab that uses the built in spreadsheet functions to pull the books available for loaning and some information about them into a single list. If you are interested in taking a look at it, a demo version, is available with more deatils on how it works.